In Initial Mass’ forthcoming album, titled Bending Light, the riffs are thick and punishing, but the 90’s-esque alternative metal vocal that adorns songs like the record-opening “Killing Heroes,” the frustratingly tense “Alchemy” and overindulgent “Silence No More” is, more often than not, so derivative in style that it makes the bulk of the content presented to us here wholly inaccessible to anyone but diehard fans. It’s unfortunate, because powerhouse jams “Resolution” and the Alice in Chains B-side of a title track could have been formidable juggernauts for a band that has been known to issue music of a much higher caliber than what they have in this latest release.
“Reason to Take,” “Embers Within” and “Years Past” sport a lackluster execution that makes all three songs seem a bit rushed and thrown together, but the ironic thing about this particular trio of tracks is that, were they mixed just a little more efficiently, they would actually serve as some of the most stage-ready material that Initial Mass has ever recorded. There’s a chance that these, and possibly even the other six songs on Bending Light, would be a lot more effective in a live setting, but here, they’re just not cutting it for what I would expect out of a group as established as these guys are. It’s just too spotty a performance, and moreover, too predictable a listen for me to get into the thrust of “Resolution” or the sludgy fretwork of “Piece by Piece” without feeling like I already heard these tracks twenty years ago.
Initial Mass miss the mark with Bending Light, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say that this is the end of their rock n’ roll campaign – far from it. Their chemistry is still strong, and for the most part, there are enough fragments of a good album here to determine that their hearts were in the right place for this last trip into the studio. A stripped-down look might be a better direction for them to take their next LP, but in the meantime, I’d recommend rock enthusiasts steer clear of this sorted selection of post-grunge songs.
Clay Burton